IEEE Awards Booklet - 2011 - 6

I E E E

M E D A L S

2011 IEEE
Alexander Graham Bell Medal

2011 IEEE
Simon Ramo Medal

Sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs

Sponsored by Northrop Grumman Corporation

Arogyaswami J. Paulraj

Neil G. Siegel

For pioneering contributions to the application of
multiantenna technology to wireless communication
systems

For the pioneering engineering that led to the successful
development of the digital battlefield, a lifesaving and
integral part of U.S. Army operations

Arogyaswami J. Paulraj's development of multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) antenna technology for wireless
communications has revolutionized both local area and mobile
broadband communications, enabling high-speed access to
multimedia services. Employing multiple antennas at both the
transmit and the receive stations, the success of MIMO is its
ability to provide both higher data rates and wider coverage
areas. Dr. Paulraj first developed the idea of MIMO in 1992 while
at Stanford University. Using the spatial multiplexing concept
that exploits MIMO antennas, he demonstrated that spectral efficiency could be improved by transmitting independent data
streams from each transmit antenna and then exploiting the
distinct spatial signatures of each stream at the receive antennas
to separate them. He was issued a patent for the MIMO concept
in 1994, but he faced skepticism from industry and funding
sources. However, he persisted and held annual workshops at
Stanford on the technology that eventually helped interest in
MIMO take hold in the late 1990s. Dr. Paulraj founded Iospan
Wireless Inc. in 1998 as the first company to incorporate MIMO
technology in a commercial system. The lessons learned at
Iospan gave the wireless industry confidence to incorporate
MIMO into emerging wireless standards. Iospan's technology
underpins today's 4G wireless systems. Intel Corp. acquired part
of Iospan in 2003 to help launch its own push into wireless
broadband, further establishing the importance of Dr. Paulraj's
MIMO concept. An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Paulraj is a Professor
Emeritus at Stanford University, Calif., and a senior advisor to
Broadcom Corp., Irvine, Calif.

Neil Siegel's groundbreaking systems engineering work in
creating the "digital battlefield" has helped define the future of
the U.S. armed forces and is already saving the lives of soldiers
and Marines. Dr. Siegel led the design of a digital system
capable of tracking friendly and enemy forces, thereby revolutionizing tactical-level command and control. He led
programmatic, systems engineering and technology efforts and
also guided what was an initially controversial concept through
political minefields to realization. This system, known as Force
XXI Battle Command Brigade-and-Below (FBCB2), is also known
as the Blue-Force Tracker. Dr. Siegel's invention of the forcestructure-aware communications network provides better
communications in the challenging tactical environment by incorporating continuously updated knowledge of the military
force structure it is supporting into routing decisions. The communications network achieves reliable infrastructureless wireless
communications for tens of thousands of mobile platforms,
without depending on cellular towers or fixed-site relays. FBCB2
has thereby become the U.S. Army's principle battle command
system, is deployed on U.S. Army and U.S. Marines vehicles
worldwide and is credited with saving hundreds of soldiers' lives
during its use in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. It has been
cited by commanders as one of the most decisive new military
technologies of our time. Over 90,000 units of this system are in
use today, and it is planned to be the cornerstone of U.S. tactical
operations for decades to come. An IEEE Fellow and member of
the National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Siegel is currently
sector vice president and chief engineer at Northrop Grumman's
Information Systems, Dominguez Hills, Calif.

Scope: For exceptional contributions to the advancement of
communications sciences and engineering.

Scope: For exceptional achievement in systems engineering and
systems science.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Awards Booklet - 2011